My Burumpi’s Year in Books

So this year I set myself a Goodreads Reading Challenge of 50 books. From 2014-2015, I hardly read any book, I was so focused on being sad and miserable that even books couldn’t cheer me up (they usually do a pretty good job).

Earlier this year, I stared at my piles of unread books and started to go through them. My love for reading came back and I couldn’t be happier.

Picture from here

In total I read 72 books, which is actually quite amazing given that I’m an extremely slow reader (I’m the type of person who takes each word slowly, imagining each scene inside my own little imagination factory). Usually I only read contemporary romance/young adult books, but this year I decided I wanted to read anything that sounds interesting.

So here are some of my favourite books this year!

A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig

Since we’re kinda still in a holiday-Chrismassy mood, I’ll start with this book. This book is actually a children’s book, but I think it’s a must read for everyone. Anyone who loves Christmas and magic would definitely love this book. Haig plays with such simple words in this book and yet the message is quite a compelling one.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

I made a vow that starting this year I’d read more classics so one of the books I picked up was Dracula just because I lived in Romania once and have gone to the so-called Dracula castle in Bran. I buddy read this book with Aiko and we had some pretty interesting remarks about the book. Dracula is all sorts of amazing, it is written in an epistolary manner and you read all these journal entries written by the characters in the book. Every time I read a classic book I try to picture myself in the scene, which means I have to remove all the “modern-ness” around me, it makes the books much more fascinating. This book will certainly give you goosebumps!

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

I would not pick this book up if Aiko hadn’t insisted. It’s a mix of young adult, romance and science-fiction. If you love adventure and the idea of a multi-universe, I would suggest that you read this book immediately! I was so blown away by this book that I started obsessing over the concept of multi-universe.

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwang

This year I read quite a lot of humorous books because I learned that laughing a lot really helps my current situation. So when I picked up Crazy Rich Asians, I was hooked immediately. This book is quite absurd really, about rich Asians and their silly problems. I started to wonder if they really are like that in real life.

Some books were stored on my Kindle as I was travelling from Yogyakarta to KL a lot

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

I cannot stop raving about this book. It’s simply amazing! Basically it’s a book about finding romance in this digital age. Aziz Ansari is a well-known comedian who teamed up with sociologist Eric Klinenberg and they gave birth to this hilarious, informative book on modern dating. Pick this up and see the madness us young generation has to face when it comes to dating!

 

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

If magic was a book, it would be this book. If you’ve read or heard of Peter Pan, then you must read this book. This book puts a spotlight on Tiger Lily, this brave, young woman living in a wild world. The book is a love story, but not like what you have in mind. If you’re into fearless female, this is your book.

Read here for my review on Tiger Lily.

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

This book is wow. If you’ve read Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park, then you’ll love this one too. Dare I say, I like this book more than Eleanor and Park. It’s about Natasha and Daniel, who believes differently when it comes to love, who are also from completely different worlds. Their lives change after meeting each other. Not only does it talk about love, it’s also about family, culture and fate.

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So that’s just most of the books I read this year, for more you can take a look at my Goodreads. I learned that books are amazing (obviously), they are definitely my favourite escape. I also expanded my genre horizon…which is good (but also bad as it means spending more $$$ on more books!).

What have you read this year?

FULL DISCLOSURE: The book titles are affiliated links to Book Depository. I recommend Book Depository since I am a satisfied customer myself and should you purchase through the links I will get a very small percentage (at NO EXTRA COST TO YOU).